Vote: “Obstacles to Opportunities” Farmer Photo and Video Contest

Entry 1

@riversredangus: “This photo was taken last fall during calving season. I was in the midst of the hustle… raising kids, catching, weighing and tagging registered calves on top of having to drive to our lease an hour away with the expectation of having dinner on the table every night. This girl (my daughter, 4 in this picture) quietly asked for a piece of paper and a pen. I annoyingly responded, sure there’s something in the pickup. A few minutes later she told me how many calves and how many cows there were in this group by drawing them. This is resiliency in the industry… The next generation stepping up to participate and learn and fill voids.

California is a major Ag state, yes but it is not easy to continue a multigenerational operation with so many political obstacles and challenges constantly being thrown at us from our misinformed general population. It’s incredible to know that our family is willing to move forward and continue thriving in the industry through participation and the next generations willingness to show up.”

Entry 3

@wiscowsingal: “In the summer of 2018, I purchased my four OG milk cows. That coming fall, Rosemary was born: premature and diagnosed with #shortbowelsyndrome. So many plans not able to come to fruition. So many firsts as a family of three looked different in a hospital setting. So much change in a short amount of time.

While I stayed in the hospital at Rosie’s bedside, Cody had to be home tending to our land and our cattle. Cows still needed to be worked, fence needed fixed, crops needed to be planted, and so forth.

After these last couple of years as a farming family of three with some extra sprinkles of a medical complexity to add to the chaos, we have sadly lost livestock, my dairy cows ended up being trailed back to their old home for a period of time because Rosie needed another major surgery, we have needed to replant our crops due to unpleasant weather, and Cody has taken on a lot of extra responsibility to put up feed for all of our cows this last summer in which has required a large investment in new machinery and his time.

But despite the hardships we have faced, and the extra strain on our mental health and our wallets, we’re still waking up everyday to create the life we have wanted for ourselves and our operation. Cody’s dream has always been to build up a legacy for his family. He started with 30 red angus cows in 2015, calved his way up until he doubled that, purchased a ridiculous amount of heifers in which I think he slightly regretted at the beginning of this calving season (#iykyk ?), and thanks to me, he gets to showcase my beautiful Holsteins and one jersey cow to our neighbors as they drive by. It’s a dream come true.

As we continue to maneuver through the hardships life continues to throw our way, my goal is to always stay resilient.

Happy Thursday, friends.”

Entry 5

@sa_signorelli_family_beef: “The key to resilience is education.

Not only by educating ourselves, but by educating our customers.

Our ranch story is pretty new at just about under 2 years in operation. However, before we went out and bought cows we had to really educate ourselves on how to survive in this business. We were (and are) smart enough to know that we don’t know everything. Mistakes have been made, but we learned from them.

I spent countless hours doing research on cattle genetics and feed efficiency before purchasing our foundation cow herd and herd bulls. They are more valuable than your “average” cow in more ways than one. So we can have more of a return on our investment right off the bat.

Our foundation cows have at least three generations of excellent feed efficiency and marbling genetics behind them, and when bred to the right bulls their offspring will grow and finish faster than any ol’ feedlot steer. That means they require less inputs and time on feed. Thus, they contribute LESS GHGs to the atmosphere.

We spent many, many hours on educating and researching different cattle handling systems so we can handle our cattle as stress free as possible while keeping them and ourselves safe.

We are Beef Quality Assurance certified.

I have my Masters of Beef Advocacy certificate.

I am currently in the Animal Ag Alliance training program.

We will NEVER stop researching and educating ourselves to be better ranchers and land stewards.

But NONE OF THIS MATTERS, if we do not educate and explain to our customers on why any of the things I listed above should and do matter to them.

Anti-ag and anti-animal groups are taking advantage of an unknowedgable public to push their radical agendas through ballot propositions that could, in my opinion, destroy animal agriculture in our or our children’s lifetimes if we don’t start speaking up.

I don’t want the livestock industry to be shut down simply because we didn’t engage & educate our consumers.

I would really love to attend the Virtual Stakeholder’s Summit put on by the @animalagalliance to educate myself further on how to advance my animal ag advocacy efforts.”

Entry 7

@hilltopdairyinc: “As planting season is getting closer for farmers in our area I started to reminisce about the end of harvest last year.

2020 wasn’t what anyone thought it would be but spring this year is reminding us we can always have a fresh start.

Oddly enough my word of the year for 2020 was resilient, and oh man was it a good word.

I had to learn to be optimistic after we saw milk prices TANK! I had to learn to be patient waiting for my baby to come. I had to learn to ask for help when I had a farm accident. I had to learn to be happy spend time at home while we quarantined and everything was being canceled, even our family Christmas.

I learned to come back from so many things that would make someone depressed. I learned to look for the good!

It was hard. It was so hard. But now with a fresh start I can see I’m so much stronger coming out of 2020 than I was going into it.”